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Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

From the videos (which have not been removed, despite what the headline suggests) it appears the person is following police officers around on the street, trying to provoke reactions while he films, and posting the videos with police names to his Instagram accounts where he sells anti-police merch.

I don’t condone the police behavior, but it’s clear that the person recording is not a hero or even blameless. He’s running a business that profits from anti-police sentiment and promoting it with these videos.

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All of what you have described is entirely legal.

So what you are saying is, the police officer should start following that provocateur around on his day off with a camera? Film the guy who is filming the police officers! I like it!

No, that's a complete misunderstanding of the law on this.

If you antagonize and film a police officer while they are off-duty, that is inappropriate; potentially stalking and harassment. Same in the other direction. The courts have thus far determined there are specific rights to filming police while engaged in their duties; not just for press, but for citizens in general.

Filming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glik_v._Cunniffe

Antagonizing: https://www.wired.com/2013/01/flipping-off-cop-case/

Do those "specific rights" include antagonizing a police officer while he/she is performing his or her official duties? I don't think the majority of society will agree with that, just my opinion. At the end of the day, we need to see a few cities that let their entire police force resign due to "woke" culture and watch what happens. People will vote with their feet and wallets.

The police don’t really need help defending themselves.

If they feel the least bit threatened, they can simply arrest someone who is “stalking” them.

That they are resorting to clever tactics like playing copyrighted music, shows that legally speaking they can’t do anything else.

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